Microsoft Talks Halo 2 Anniversary and E3 Trailer

Microsoft’s E3 press conference had a very impressive teaser. A cloaked figure moving across the desert is ambushed. The hood is removed to reveal… Master Chief. The crowd’s applause roared over the audio. But… what did we really see at E3?

The reveal of Halo for Xbox One has many fans worried. Halo 2‘s tenth anniversary is next year, and many players want to celebrate with a remake. Did Microsoft’s E3 showing kill those chances?

“There was no ambiguity in not putting a number after the game. For me, what we showed wasn’t the game. Nobody should be confused on that. I didn’t really want to try to show something that was clearly a thought piece by the studio around where Master Chief is in his journey, and then drop the name after it and be somewhat disingenuous about that being the game.

“But I did want Bonnie to come out and say, ‘First-person shooter. Master Chief.’ Because they’ll get the questions – ‘Hey, is this ODST? What are you guys doing?’ Bonnie comes out and reaffirms that 343 is building this game. It’s Master Chief. It’s a first-person shooter at 60 frames per second. It’s coming in 2014.”-Phil Spencer, Vice President of Microsoft Game Studios

In other words, Halo isn’t quite ready to be shown yet. That begs the question, “why have a teaser?” Spencer has a response to that too.

“If you go back in Halo history, and I’ve been around all of the Halos since Halo 1… Halo usually has two E3s.”

So does this kill the chance of a Halo 2 remake, or is that just a dream that will never see the light? Phil Spencer has a very vague answer for you.

“I’ll be open. We have discussions about [Halo 2’s anniversary]. It’s more about the right time and making sure that we really would do the right thing for the franchise.

“The Halo Anniversary that we did was as much about the launch of the first Xbox as well. It was a culmination of many things coming together. It would probably run out of steam if we were trying to think about, ‘Okay, what’s 10 years old now?’ It’s definitely more from the game itself, the experience that we’re able to bring to market. Less about ‘Is the last digit a zero?’ in terms of its anniversary.”

What do you think? Would you like to see Halo 2 on Xbox One, or should Microsoft jump to make Halo 5? With a 2014 release window shown at E3, Master Chief is going to come back to Xbox next year, remake or original.